In an update on July 17, the eight-year-old space sandbox game No Man's Sky welcomed the biggest update of the year, the first part of "World". No Man's Sky is a sci-fi simulation game developed by Hello Games, where players can freely explore hundreds of millions of planets, gather resources, build bases, conduct trade, build spaceships, and experience a real space journey.
Within a week of the update, No Man's Sky quickly topped the Steam best-selling charts, with the highest number of concurrent online users exceeding 4w, and rocketed to the Steam Deck's list of the hottest games, climbing 62 places to No. 5 in one fell swoop, on the same level as triple-A titles such as Baldur's Gate 3 and Elden Ring.
Technology from the "future".
This update is another major free update for No Man's Sky since its release in 2016, with the theme: "Worlds". The content focuses on revolutionizing the planet's appearance and visual experience, with new water technology generating waves and reflections that give the ocean a new look. The look and feel of the planets of the sea has become completely different, and now the ship can land on the water. In addition, waves react dynamically to planetary weather.
Not only the water body, but also the technical upgrade of the cloud layer is also a highlight. On the planet's surface, Hello Games has added new volume and atmospheric effects. Rolling fog, rain, blizzards, lava sparks, which, combined with wind and clouds, dramatically change the feeling of exploring planets, adding a lot of life. Sometimes, when a storm hits, players will see waves rolling and clouds gathering. New wind, cloud, ocean, and atmospheric effects combine to create an unparalleled experience.
In addition, the game also adds the same co-op bug fighting gameplay as Starship Troopers, where players can cooperate with other players to use the newly added flamethrower arms and heavy mechs to fight against the swarm. Considering the success of Hellstraant 2, battling the space swarm may be one of the enduring gameplay features of the sci-fi genre.
Interestingly, in this update, Hello Games has appropriated some of the technology from the new game Fireless Light to No Man's Sky, which they call "technology from the future". And I attach great importance to this update.
"After eight years of our journey, we've continued to innovate and I feel like this update includes something that the community almost didn't expect anymore. For us, it's not just about adding some new looks, it's really making a profound impact on No Man's Sky. Hello Games mentioned in Steam's update page.
Since its debut disaster in 2016, No Man's Sky has finally redeemed itself - its praise rate has exceeded the 80% mark, and it has been completely reversed.
If you ask what is going on in the gaming circle, the story of Hello Games and No Man's Sky is definitely one. From being called a "scam and false publicity" by players when it was released in 2016 to being "the best space sandbox game in history" in the hearts of players, Hello Games has completely reversed the reputation of "No Man's Sky" with eight years of continuous free updates, creating a myth in the gaming circle.
The "hoax" of "billions of planets"
At the 2013 E3 show, Hello Games released a promotional video for a space sandbox game, in which players can freely explore 184 billion (18,446,744,073,709,551,616 planets) randomly generated by AI on planets of different shapes, see a rich variety of flora, fauna and ecological environment, and from planetary exploration to flying spaceship into the universe, there is no loading interface during the whole gameplay, and the seamless experience runs throughout. They named the game No Man's Sky.
"Seamless exploration" and "hundreds of millions of planets", these keywords were like dazzling stars back then, which made players and the industry boil, and was once known as the "space version of Minecraft". But as expectations grew, the independent studio, which had only a dozen employees, was clearly overwhelmed, so it expanded its staff while working overtime.
Perhaps jealous, on Christmas Day 2013, a flood caused by heavy precipitation washed away Hello Games' office in Guildford, United States. All of their possessions, including everything related to No Man's Sky, were destroyed in this flood. As an indie game studio with little fault tolerance, it's hard to imagine how much of a blow this would be for Hello Games.
After several ticket bounces, No Man's Sky finally met players in 2016, and unsurprisingly, it turned out to be a disaster. Although it quickly reached 70w copies of sales after its release, it ushered in a frenzied bombardment of bad reviews and refund demands from players, and a week after the release, there were only about 1,000 players left in "No Man's Sky", with a retention rate of less than 1%. The sheer number of bugs has kept players tired of optimizing the difference between Skyrim, and billions of planets have become a veritable joke, outrageously repetitive and difficult to reach. Many of the contents of the original promotional video were not delivered, which even caused Hello Games to suffer a lawsuit in the name of "false publicity", although the United Kingdom Advertising Standards Authority later declared it innocent, but its reputation fell to the bottom.
For Steam games, the blow of negative reviews is extremely heavy. Recently, GTA publisher Take-Two made it clear in a document shared with investors that the bombardment of negative reviews has become a significant factor affecting its financial performance and the company's reputation. Even a giant company like Take-Two is afraid of negative reviews, let alone an independent game studio with only a few dozen employees?
"Our journey continues"
In the face of verbal criticism from players and the media, Hello Games chose to endure the humiliation, bear all the blame, and then embark on a journey of redemption for itself and No Man's Sky. For eight years, they have been making free updates at an astonishing rate of one to two months on average, with a new version at an astonishing rate, without stopping. In the past eight years, the game has been almost reworked, with the main story being overturned, the base building system completely redone, the addition of countless planets and creatures, and the launch of the multiplayer mode and VR mode promised to players.
If the original debut disaster was a dream shattered, then for the next eight years, Hello Games has been picking up these pieces by hand and carefully patching them, all in order to restore the space dream that was promised to players in the first place.
With the unremitting efforts of the official, "No Man's Sky" has gradually returned to the public eye, and players' evaluation of the game has gradually changed from "the ideal shit" at the beginning to "this game is not bad", until now "the best space exploration game".
Sean Murray, the ·creator of "No Man's Sky", mentioned in the interview video, "Even though it's been eight years, we still want to make a really big innovation." This restless creative impulse, indomitable tenacity, obsession with commitment, and respect for the game may be the key to Hello Games' self-redemption.
With the resurgence of word-of-mouth, the eight-year-old game has finally been brought back to life. According to foreign media reports, "No Man's Sky" will have a net income of 39.7 million pounds (about 358 million yuan) in 2022 only by relying on the sales of the PC version and the console version. In 2021, the game's revenue will be 27.4 million pounds (about 247 million yuan), which is converted into sales, conservatively speaking, it has exceeded 10 million sets.
"Our journey continues." This is the motto of players in No Man's Sky, and it is also the truest portrayal of the Hello Games studio.